Skimming and Scanning – Best Practice

8 Tips to skim and scan reading material efficiently

One of the most efficient techniques to read faster is skimming and scanning. Previewing a text, document or book allows you to grasp the broader picture, get the author’s main idea and sketch the most important data.

This technique is a real-time saver; think of all the books for exams or paperwork at work and to be able to extract key information without having to read the whole material. You will decide to either read the material or skip it. Previewing is easy to learn and can be combined with other speed reading techniques.

This post will outline all points to get you started. I have also curated useful resources for further studying such as articles, exercises, worksheets, examples, videos and slideshares.

Skimming and Scanning – Meaning and Definition

Scanning is a technique to trigger and extract key information and ideas such as names, numbers, specific facts. Scanning involves moving your eyes quickly down the page identifying specific words and phrases to either find a particular answer or grasping the basic main idea. You can also use it to determine whether a new resource will answer your questions or not. This activity probably takes about 5-10 minutes.

Skimming will focus on understanding the main idea and concept. It works best with non-fiction material.You won’t read everything. You read only what is important to you. You may stop for interesting facts but then quickly continue to skim the book.

It’s like browsing a new travel book or moving your finger over a map of a city you wish to travel to. At first you may spot pictures, read selected snippets of information or identify general areas, landmarks, or highlights. You want to know the bigger picture first before exploring a location in detail. These practices will teach your brain to understand, comprehend and remember a lot faster.

Tip: Previewing is all about answering these five ‘W’ questions: Who, Where, What, When, Why.Who relates to people involved. Where relates to the location. What refers to the general idea/topic. When is about the time of an event. Why refers to reasons, analysis. Write down all key facts to remember them later.

How to Skim and Scan? Best Practice.

You can choose from four major strategies. I will explain them in more detail below.

Reading Key Sentences

Scan for name and numbers

Scan for trigger words

Skim small parts of text for key ideas

There is also a fifth technique called novel previewing and is taught by Ron Cole, but this method is different from the steps explained in this post.

Preview a book applying these easy steps.

Preview the content page

Read the title

Read the back of the book

Read the index

Scan for images

Look for letters in “bold”

Read the chapter names and headlines

Read first sentence of paragraphs

Try spotting tables and graphs

Spot ‘conclusion’ or ‘summary’ sections

Jot down key information

Also look for “thematic sentences”. These are key sentences which contains a summary of the paragraph or a whole chapter. Those may give you a solid overview of a long chapter.

4 Skimming and Scanning Strategies

1. Previewing key sentences

These sentences can be found at the very beginning of a paragraph or chapter. The first few sentences will give you a good idea about the paragraph.

How does it work? Each paragraph usually delivers one idea, though paragraphs may often relate to each other. Once you understand the central idea behind each paragraph block you will quickly get the gist of it. This may aid you in understanding the whole chapter a lot faster.

You can also use a different approach – just look for the applicable information that you require and skip the rest. Another tactic is to read the first and the last sentence of longer paragraphs which may give you a more relevant summary and enable you to pick up the central idea.

According to my experience this works like a charm. I never read all the sentences or even the whole chapter. I constantly shift to the following chapter only skimming the most interesting bits and bites. In the beginning I found it difficult to remember information but after a while it became easier for me to remember. Skim as little as possible and as much as necessary.

2. Scan for name and numbers

Numbers and names are present in every text and they narrate details about people, places and concepts. There is no order of getting those information in a text during previewing. However, I often look for the main facts by understanding where and when the story takes place or how many people are involved.

One of the best ways of scanning for this sort of information is to move your finger or pointer across the page (you can use serpentine style or zigzag) you will notice that you will quickly remember a number or a few names. After that just read the whole text so that you can get a complete picture.

3. Scanning trigger words

Paul Scheele taught me this technique when I read his book “Photo Reading”. The concept is to preview a text while keeping a lookout for important key words and if wanted to jot them down. Mainly you will spot nouns or compounds. Trigger words usually include numbers, names, places and key sentences.

4. Reading the title

Reading the title, the content and the back of the book or text is probably the first thing we do with new material. Many trigger words are automatically revealed through this method. For example if the title says “Guide to memory techniques” it is unlikely to find information about ‘web design’ for example.

There are also chapter titles, headlines, sub-headlines or titles of tables and graphs that reveal a lot of useful information.

Skimming and scanning exercises

Here is an assignment which tries to solve this issue and provides exercises to help you remember sentence reading and recalling sentences.

1. Key Sentence. Grab any book you like and simply read the first sentences or few paragraphs. Now try recalling the ideas your mind grabbed when you read the sentences using the concept. Don’t practice this on more than 4 or 5 sentences. Only increase the numbers when you have mastered these sentences.

2. Names and numbers. Choose any article that is to your liking and look for numbers and names in it. When you find a fact or a name, pause for a few seconds and realize it. You can say the word out loud if you wish. Now start reading the entire material and see if the facts you just paused on start to reveal themselves as you read.

3. Trigger words.Choose a number of different articles or books for this exercise. When you have the articles or books ready, start reading the titles, content, back of the book if required and headlines. Simply write down the trigger words and try to stop at words that interest you. Write these words down too and let them become your trigger words.

About Mark Ways

I discovered speed reading 10 years ago and now my passion is blogging about new e-learning techniques, software and skills. I'm also keen on photography, traveling, languages and movies. Let's keep in touch!

Comments

Right I think I scan and skim at the same time or at least try to do it. I did not really know the difference between the two and also did not know (and wouldn’t have guessed either) that scanning should come first. That video you shared was very helpful for that. I now have a much better idea of how I should approach a text and considering how much I read (especially online) this should really come in handy. I will try to focus more and exercise each day so I get better at this.

Your article really inspires me to read more books in a proper way. For my next non-fiction read I will try applying some of the mentioned skimming and scanning techniques. Really helpful and excellent tips to read more effectively! Thank you for sharing these!

Scanning for names, numbers or specific information I can read extremely quickly but I was lucky enough to have a teacher who taught us that. My teenage daughter would find this post extremely helpful before she starts her GCSEs next year.